


Black Widow: Widow War

by LaceyBarbedWire



Series: Eliza MCU [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Because Natasha deserves a movie, F/F, F/M, Result of fancasting, So does Clint but thas for somone else to write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-05-28 22:59:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6348982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaceyBarbedWire/pseuds/LaceyBarbedWire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha gets called on by SHIELD to help solve a problem. A rich businessman has been murdered. The perpetrator left only one clue, all over the place- the red hourglass of the Black Widow. Immediately after the same criminal attempts to kill her. Now the game is on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jason Iverson had it good. At fifty five he was the CEO of his own company, and one of the richest men in the United States. He had his own island, three jets, and one of each model of the ten fastest cars in the world. He wined and dined with generals, and had the ears of several senators. Life was good.

But all good things must come to an end.

Jason Iverson had never taken his security all that seriously. Oh, his bodyguards were quite competent, and his security system was state of the art, but given his tendency to throw money at the United States military, the number of wealthy enemies he'd made over the years, and the quality of the best assassins in the world, it was all laughably inadequate. Not that anything available in the private sector would have stopped the assassin coming for him tonight, but still. They could have made it difficult.

The young woman reached into the belt of her black jumpsuit, drawing a collapsible baton out as she headed for the elevator. The guard at the desk stood up, letting out a cry as he drew his gun. She sped up, not straining in the slightest, and slammed the hard baton across his throat. He staggered backwards and she followed up with a punch to the solar plexus and a kick to the head. Two seconds later she was in the elevator and he was on the ground unconscious. She rolled her eyes at the choice of elevator music and jumped up, bracing herself against the walls to press her back against the ceiling and out of sight of the doors. When she reached the top floor the doors came open with a ding and two guards came into the elevator, guns drawn. The young woman took advantage of their momentary distraction to swing down, kicking them both in the face, and dropping down with her legs positioned so that her feet landed on their throats. As she walked out into the hallway the remaining two guards came into view, guns drawn. In response the young woman smirked and drew her baton once again.

Jason Iverson stood frozen behind his securely locked door as gunshots rang through the air. Three seconds later they stopped. Four seconds after that his door opened. His eyes widened as the young woman walked through the door, not so much as scratched. "You." He whispered hoarsely as the young woman drew the second of the three objects on her belt, a small black pistol and pointed it at his head.

"Da." She said dryly, squeezing the trigger. She holstered the pistol as he fell and pulled out the third item, a can of red spray paint. The young woman gave a grim smile and got to work.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
Twenty four hours later

Natasha raised an eyebrow as she saw that Maria was already waiting for her and Steve in the elevator. "Five guards, all unconscious but neither dead nor crippled." Maria said briskly as she hit the button for the top floor. "Their employer, Jason Iverson, wasn't so lucky."

"Hello to you too." Natasha said with a smirk. Maria raised an eyebrow at her, then smiled.

"Sorry, this one's just...difficult." The brunette said.

"Difficult how?" Steve asked, confused, as the trio walked out of the elevator. "You just said that a wealthy businessman was killed, you didn't say why you needed us." Maria looked at them and opened the door.

"Take a guess." She said, entering. The two Avengers followed, their eyes widening as they took in the new decorations. The walls, ceiling, and even floor were covered in red hourglasses.

"Isn't that?" Steve started slowly, turning to look at Natasha, who slowly nodded.

"The symbol of the Black Widow." She said softly. The small assassin turned to look at Maria. "Anything you want to tell us Hill?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Maria said, unbothered by Natasha's almost accusatory tone. Natasha shook her head.

"Half my contacts dried up after New York, you know that."

"Well we don't have much to go on either. We've got an artist working with the guards to get a sketch of the assassin, but so far all they can agree on was that it was a young woman and that she moved really fast. The two who she took out in the elevator didn't even see her. She wore gloves apparently, because we're not finding any fingerprints. Hopefully she left a hair behind, because otherwise we've got nothing."

"What about the victim?" Steve asked.

"Jason Iverson, fifty five years old, CEO of Iverson Global. They're a communications company, nothing too exciting. They've got a few satellites, but they're all above board. He's contributed a lot of money to the United States military, particularly General Ross. Vision's going through those and the rest of his financials, but so far everything seems legit."

"General Ross? Isn't he the guy who keeps trying to replicate me?" Steve asked.

"Pretty much." Maria agreed. Natasha frowned as something made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Something was wrong.

"That seems like a pretty good motive to me." Steve said. "Kill Iverson and you cut off a good part of Ross' funding." Maria shook her head.

"Most of Iverson's contributions went to Ross, but he wasn't the General's biggest source of funding. And he hadn't given any money in months. Killing him shouldn't hurt Ross any." Steve opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Natasha whirled around, drawing her pistol and firing at the window. There was a flash of sparks as the bullet from her pistol collided with a bullet that had been fired through the window. Maria and Steve reacted instantly, moving out of the line of fire, Maria barking orders into her earpiece. Natasha bolted out of the room, heading for the stairwell. Most likely the would be assassin would move out upon seeing that they'd failed, but hopefully they'd leave something behind that Natasha could use.

Before she could get very far however, her phone vibrated. Natasha slid to a halt. Very, very few people had that number, and they all knew that it was for emergencies only, unless you were Maria. So whatever the text was, it was more important than a by now long gone assassin. Her brows furrowed as she saw the words 'unknown number' on the screen. That shouldn't be possible. Natasha's frown deepened as she read what the text said. "Out with the old, in with the new." Along with a picture of a red hourglass. Then, a second later "Nice shooting Tex ;)" Natasha blinked. The assassin was...teasing her? That was not normal behavior. The Red Room certainty wouldn't have left that in their new Black Widow. That almost implied a freelancer who'd decided to take on the title for kicks, but the skills demonstrated by this mystery woman were too high for that to be plausible, especially if the bodyguards were telling the truth about her young age. Natasha scowled. She hated riddles.


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha paced back and forth behind Maria. “Anything?” Maria sighed and didn’t take her eyes off the screen.

“Nothing. Just like there wasn’t five minutes ago.” There was a pause. “I know it was a burner phone, but I can’t find out how this assassin got ahold of your number.” There was another pause. “I know you don’t want to, but…”

“We are not taking this to Tony.” Natasha said flatly. “He’s smug enough as it is. I don’t want to go to him because SHIELD can’t solve a problem.” She thought it over. “You’ve checked from everyone else’s ends right?”

“Everyone but Tony.” Maria nodded, leaning back. “And if she managed to hack Tony’s secure phone, we’ve got bigger problems.” Suddenly Maria’s phone rang. “Speak of the devil and he will call.” She said, picking it up.

“Hey Hill. Who’s Nat pissed at this time?” Tony asked from the other end. Maria glanced back reflexively.

“That’s a long list. How much time do you have?” Tony snorted.

“Let me narrow it down for you. Who is she so pissed at that she’d take the time to project a giant message onto a skyscraper for?” Maria blinked. Twice.

“That’s not Natasha.” She said slowly.

“You sure? It’s got her logo on the bottom of it. I figured someone had insulted your honor or something and she was too mad to be subtle.”

“What’s it say?”

“Come out and come out wherever you are. Then there’s the red hourglass and an arrow pointing down at the street.” Maria opened her mouth, but got distracted by Natasha bolting out of the room.

“Shit. I’ll call you back Tony. Thanks for the heads up.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the same time-Unmapped Subway tunnel

The young woman was fighting off a trio of large, muscular men in United States Army fatigues, all of them impressively skilled for their size. The assassin had come prepared though, with two of the collapsible nightsticks she’d used previously, parrying every blow that came her way from the right and left, moving her head to dodge the man in front of her. She’d managed to maneuver her way to the center of the platform and was standing firm, not moving her feet as she fought the three men. “Damn but you guys are way more skilled than I expected.” She said, whistling. “Seriously, I expected you to be like those losers at the base, but man am I impressed.” Snarling, the man on her left aimed a left hook at her head, only for the assassin to lean back and slam her stick into his neck, then pivoted so her back was to his right and jammed her left elbow into his kidney. He sank to his knees and she kicked him in the back of the head before jumping back to avoid the right man’s uppercut.

“I’m flattered guys, really, but I don’t swing that way.” She said, before pulling her gun out of the holster and throwing it at the man’s head. It slammed into him and he crumpled. “And that is why the bad guys always do that in comics.” She said with a smirk before rushing forward and striking the man in the solar plexus, kidney, and groin in rapid succession, kneeing him in the face as he sank to the ground. The young woman let out a satisfied sigh and stretched her arms over her head. “Nice little workout.” She muttered, jumping into the tunnel and heading left.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Five minutes later

Natasha rushed into the subway platform, only to find nothing but three unconscious men lying on the ground. She paused and looked around, but nobody else was present. She blinked a few times, then started scanning the ground for traps. She didn’t notice anything, but that didn’t mean anything necessarily. Suddenly her phone rang. Natasha frowned and pulled it out. A quick glance told her that she’d gotten another text from the unknown number. “Sorry for ditching you, the first round skipped out. Feel free to take these guys as an apology.” She glared at the phone, then switched over to Maria’s contact.

“I got stood up.” Natasha said shortly when Maria picked up.

“Aw, poor baby.” Maria teased. Frankly, she was a little bit relieved. Not that Natasha couldn’t handle herself, but this was a meeting that had worried her, for the simple reason that the arrow had directed them underground, and it would be remarkably simple for this mysterious assassin to rig the meeting place with explosives to destroy the place and kill, or at least seriously injure Natasha. She’d been worrying ever since Natasha dashed out of the building without waiting for any backup. “Any clues?”

“Three unconscious soldiers.” Natasha said, nudging one of them with her foot. “No insignia on their uniforms, no dog tags, just a lot of bruises.”

“Alright, keep them unconscious, I’ll send a team to your location to take them.” Maria said, typing on the keyboard. Natasha nodded and hung up.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifteen minutes later

The young woman sighed in frustration. “Coward.” She muttered. Her target was nowhere to be found, and had managed to not leave a trail somehow. She sighed again. “Screw it, I’m going to go get a chimichanga.” She muttered, heading for the exit.


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha sighed and reclined in her seat as the transport moved along the road towards a SHIELD black site. The three soldiers weren’t in any database SHIELD had access to and they weren’t saying anything, not even their name and number. Given that they’d been found at the last known location of the mysterious assassin, and had presumably been rendered unconscious by her, Fury had agreed to keep them in SHIELD custody for interrogation. Given her own stake in things, and the assassin’s obvious interest in her, Natasha was part of the escort team. She wouldn’t be allowed to participate in the interrogations themselves, but Fury understood that trying to keep her or Maria out of it was an exercise in futility, so she was put on the escort detail, and Maria was on base running the eye in the sky.  
But for all of that, Natasha was restless. She didn’t care about these three men aside from their connection to the assassin that was gunning for her. She wanted to be part of that hunt, not this one. But orders were orders, and she supposed she should just be glad that she was allowed to take part in the operation at all. “Natasha?” Maria cut through her thoughts on the intercom. “You’ve got…ree…bog...” Natasha frowned.  
“Maria?” She asked, sitting straight up and hitting her earpiece. “Maria, come in? You broke off.” SHIELD coms weren’t supposed to break off like that. It would take either the mother of all black spots or a very advanced opposing agency…crap. “Guys, we’ve got…” Before she could complete her warning, a massive semi broke into the road right in front of them. Natasha’s eyes widened as the driver slammed on the brakes. It wasn’t enough though, and they plowed into the semi’s trailer. Natasha absently noted that the trailed neither budged nor dented, suggesting that it had been reinforced, as she drew a pistol with one hand, unbuckling her seatbelt with the other. She started to get out, only for a hatch to pop open in the top of the trailer and a man in combat fatigues to rise out of it and open fire with a grenade launcher. A second later, two Humvees pulled up, one on each side, and opened fire. Had they been driving a normal armored transport, they’d likely be dead in a minute or two.   
But this wasn’t a normal transport. This was a SHIELD vehicle. They had countermeasures. The driver instantly tinted the windows and nodded at Natasha before hitting a second button, activating turrets in either side of the vehicle. Natasha nodded back and pressed a button of her own, causing the seat to lean back and opening a hatch into the rear of the vehicle, which she promptly slid through. The four SHIELD agents had followed protocol, rendering the prisoners unconscious and focusing on manning the machine guns embedded in either wall. Natasha ignored them, letting them focus on their job and doing hers. She strode down the aisle and popped open the hatch in the floor, dropping down it and out under the vehicle. Not pausing, Natasha crawled towards the cab, readying her pistol. Once she reached the front of their transport she took aim and fired once, killing the man with the grenade launcher before crawling back so they couldn’t get a bead on her. Fortunately the machine guns in the transport were a good distraction. She quickly went out the back, pressing herself against the wall and readying her ‘spider bites’ as Maria called them, throwing the shocking disks at the Humvees.   
Blue electricity crackled over the assault vehicles, causing the respective gunmen to let go with yelps. The agents defending the vehicle took advantage of it to shoot the men, and then the guns. Natasha nodded and spun around the corner, shooting one of the remaining men from the left Humvee, who’d gotten out with an assault rifle. As she came into view two more hatches popped up in the roof of the semi-trailer, and men started to pour out. Or tried to anyway, as Natasha opened fire, killing some, and leaving others alive for interrogation. The driver of the semi tried to get out, only for Natasha to eliminate him with one bullet. Within two minutes the confrontation was over, ended in SHIELD’s favor.  
And then the helicopter arrived. Natasha groaned, preparing to roll back under the transport, when it stopped, hovering in midair over the semi. The door swung open, revealing a man in an officer’s uniform with a megaphone. “Stand down Agent Romanov! You’re attacking United States soldiers!” Natasha stood her ground. Aside from the fact that she didn’t have any proof that these were indeed United States soldiers, they’d attacked first. So instead she holstered one pistol and swapped it out for an entirely different one, a much larger Mark 6 Promethean pistol, made from the technology SHIELD had gotten out of the Destroyer. It wasn’t exactly an efficient weapon, but it would take down a helicopter easily enough. “Stand down Agent!” The man repeated. “Holster your weapon or we will be forced to use deadly force!” Natasha just glared him down and raised her pistol in silent defiance, aiming directly at him. She squeezed down, increasing the pressure on the trigger.  
Before either of them could make a move, there was a familiar hum. Natasha looked up to see Colonel James Rhodes hovering over them, just to Natasha’s left and facing the helicopter. “Ah, Colonel Rhodes!” The man in the helicopter called out, sounding smugly pleased. “Glad to see you son. Your assistance will be appreciated. Natasha’s expression didn’t change, but her mind was racing. This wasn’t going to be easy. Under the right conditions, such as at night and with lots of cover, she could pull a victory, but out in the open, with only one real source of cover? Not so much. Didn’t help that the turrets on the transport were designed to cover the sides of the vehicle, not the top or front, so there’d be little help from there. Add the fact that Rhodes was Tony’s best friend, so Natasha couldn’t really afford to so much as maim him, and this was just getting better and better. But then, to everybody else’s surprise, including Natasha’s, the Colonel pointed his weapons at the helicopter.   
“General Ross, you are under arrest for hijacking an Air Force satellite, using soldiers for your own interests rather than the interests of the United States as a whole, attacking the agents of an allied agency, and misappropriation of funds.” Rhodes said over the intercom in his armor. “Stand down or I’ll bring you down.” There was a moment of silence before Ross responded.  
“Son, you know what this is? This is a Knight Slayer attack helicopter. It’s an Army Special, designed specifically to take down you and Stark, and anyone else who gets the bright idea to put on a suit and play hero. This thing will give the Hulk pause.”  
“I know.” Rhodes said calmly. “That’s why I brought a little back up of my own.” A scarlet jet came streaking in before coming to rather fast stop, hovering in place like a helicopter. Natasha raised an eyebrow. It looked like a modified Quinjet, only designed for just one person and painted scarlet and blue. “Meet the Saint Star. Now, your helicopter might be an Army Special, but this jet here is a Stark Special, made to take down the Knight Slayer and anything like it. Meet the one aircraft that can match the Helicarrier for firepower.”  
“You’re bluffing!” Ross snapped through the megaphone. “Stark doesn’t make things for the military anymore, he only cares about his suits.”  
“Normally he doesn’t, you’re right. But Tony can be a vindictive bastard, and I say that as his best friend. So when you go making a weapon designed to kill me and him, did you really didn’t think he wouldn’t do everything he could to make you obsolete?” There was a moment of silence as this registered with Ross. “Carol, get ready to make a show of force.” Rhodes said, sounding resigned as Ross and his pilot argued.  
“Oh please do.” A woman called from over the jet’s intercom. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to use this in a real combat situation. I’ve got a lot of buttons in here.”   
“Very well Colonel. We’ll leave in peace.” Ross replied.  
“Oh no you don’t.” Rhodes snapped. “I’m here to take you into custody. Colonel Danvers will guide you to a landing zone, where you will disembark. An Air Force team will be waiting for you there.” Natasha could see the vein pulsing in Ross’ forehead from the ground as the pilot, who appeared to be far less hotheaded, followed Rhodes’ instructions. There was a deep sigh from the jet.  
“Next time baby.” Colonel Danvers said consolingly as she followed the helicopter.  
“Your intercom’s still on Carol.” Rhodes said, amused, as he landed next to Natasha.   
“Thanks for the assist.” Natasha said, nodding with a slight smile.  
“Eh, you could have handled it on your own.” Rhodes said, flipping up his faceplate.  
“Probably, but you kept it less messy.” Rhodes looked at her, then snorted and shook his head.  
“You know, anyone else and I would have just been being polite and you would just be cocky. But you and your group? I believe you could have done it.” Natasha smirked, then arched an eyebrow.  
“Saint Star?” Rhodey shook his head.  
“Carol and Tony go back pretty far. She’s the only besides me he trusts to pilot the thing, and the Air Force was just happy to get a Stark weapon again, so they let her pilot it, just like how nobody else pilots this suit. It has an Air Force designation, with lots of consonants and numbers, but Tony and Carol couldn’t agree on a name that everybody’ll use. Tony based it off a vehicle in some video game, Saint’s Row the Third, that he and Carol both love, so that’s where the Saint bit came from. Carol wanted to call it the Saint Hammer, but Tony didn’t want that because, you know, Justin Hammer. So they went back and forth for a bit, and eventually they settled on Star because Tony wanted Carol to pilot it.” Natasha gave him a confused look, and Rhodes laughed. “Tony was insanely drunk when they met, even by his standards. He kept trying to flirt with her and called her ‘Star’ for reasons known only to his drunken brain. Fortunately he kept his hands to himself and so Carol was more amused than anything else.” Natasha nodded, smiling now, and looked at the scene. That sounded like Tony.  
“How many of them did you leave alive?” Rhodes asked, nodding at the men that the SHIELD agents were pulling from the Semi.  
“Enough.” Natasha replied. “Hopefully.” Rhodes nodded.  
“I’m going to need two.” He said. Natasha gave him a sharp look and he took a step back, raising his hands. “Look, I’ve got to bring some of them in, but I can’t carry more than two easily, and I’m not going to ask you to take them to the Air Force. I’ll just say you only left two alive. Nobody’ll buy it, but we’re all on the same side so they’ll let it slide.” Natasha sighed but nodded.  
“Fair enough, Colonel.” Rhodes nodded and closed his faceplate, getting ready to leave. “Just one question. Why’d you and Ross get those aircraft built so quickly? It hasn’t even been a year since the Battle of New York.” Rhodes looked back at her.  
“SHIELD’s not the only one who knows we’re in a new arms race miss.” He said simply.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
At the same time-Manhattan  
The mysterious young woman cursed and threw a laptop off the table. She’d piggybacked Ross’s hacking of the Air Force Satellite, and she’d watched the confrontation, strangely relieved to see Natasha Romanov make it out unscathed. The redhead was her kill, not some random loser’s, and certainly not Ross’. But Ross was in Air Force custody now, and that made things more difficult. When he was left to his own devices Ross was relatively easy to get to, his ego cutting back on his security’s defenses. Things would get significantly harder now. She looked over at a picture she’d taken of a nice pair of katanas she’d spotted, then shook her head. She wasn’t ready to resort to killing henchmen yet. There were two people on her hit list, and she wasn’t about to kill anyone else. Instead, it was time to turn to her favorite pastime. Trolling Romanov.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
One minute later-on the road again  
Natasha picked up her phone and groaned as she saw the ‘unknown caller’ ID. ‘Not too shabby tabby! :3 Glad you liked my gifts so much! Hope you’ve got a grave site you like picked out, I’ll be seeing you soon!’


	4. Chapter 4

Maria walked into the bedroom of her suite in the black site and raised an eyebrow. “Are you pouting?” She demanded. Natasha glared at her.  
“No.” She snapped, looking back down at the phone on the bed in front of her.   
“If none of our people can crack it the right way, I kind of doubt you can glare it into submission.” Maria snarked, sitting down next to her.   
“Everything goes back to this phone.” Natasha muttered. “Everything. If I can figure out how the brat hacked into it, I can figure out how to track her back.”   
“Still don’t think glaring at it will accomplish anything.” Maria said with amusement, rubbing Natasha’s back. Natasha groaned and leaned into Maria.  
“Has the interrogation team gotten anything out of them yet?” She asked.  
“Not yet, but it’s early days yet.” Maria assured her. There was a moment of silence. “Fury thinks he found her.” She said slowly. Natasha sat straight up.  
“What?”  
“She’s staying in Queens apparently.” Maria continued, still reluctant and slow. “She’s stayed off the radar to a certain degree, but she seems to have one hidey hole and she keeps coming back to it. Some of our tech people found footage of her slipping in and out of Iverson’s building before and after his murder, and entering the subway station we found the three soldiers in. Whoever she is, she was careful, usually wore a hoodie and changed her hair style, and we only got a few seconds each time, but she wasn’t careful enough.” There was a pause as Natasha considered Maria for a long moment.   
“Why don’t you want to tell me this?” She asked slowly.  
“Because we don’t know anything about this girl besides that she’s brunette, very skilled, and gunning for you. We don’t know who trained her, where she comes from, or what weapons she has. For all we know she wanted us to find her and track her back to this flat. And I can’t stop you from throwing yourself at her, because you’re seeing red.” Maria said sharply, shaking her head. “I don’t like any of this.” Natasha looked at her for another long moment, then kissed her on the cheek.  
“You’re sweet.” She said softly. “And I’ll be careful. I’m a professional, I can be objective. Besides, this is what my job is. Clint’s in Vietnam right now, May’s off the grid, and Morse isn’t ready. There’s just me right now.” Maria raised an eyebrow.  
“And the team that just saved the world can’t go in because…?”  
“Stark’s dealing with PTSD, Steve’s still adjusting, Thor’s off who knows where, and this isn’t the kind of thing we want Bruce helping with.” Natasha rattled off. Maria blinked, and Natasha sighed and slid herself into Maria’s lap, facing the other woman. “Babe, I’ve thought about this. From the minute I got that first text I’ve been trying to decide what needs to be done about this girl. This is how it’s going to be.”  
“…I still don’t like it.” Maria muttered. “But…fine. If Fury approves of your plan, whatever it turns out to be, then fine.” Natasha smiled and kissed her on the lips.  
Twelve hours later-Queens  
The young woman was walking through her apartment, humming to herself as she placed a chimichanga in the microwave, when she stopped and stood up, the hair on the back of her neck prickling. She frowned and looked towards the door to the outside, then at the window. She’d modified both to make them tougher than normal, but she could only do so much in a civilian owned building with neighbors, especially when she needed to be able to escape quickly if the situation called for it. She wasn’t under any illusions, she knew what she’d done. She was a lone, dirt poor young woman who’d gone and poked SHIELD and General Ross’ cult of personality at the same time. A more mature, rational person would have waited to upset SHIELD until after dealing with Ross. But she was angry, and that had led to her making some poor choices. But no point in crying over spilled milk, she’d made her bed and now she needed to deal with the consequences of her actions. And those consequences were that she had to deal with the probability of being surrounded if they managed to find her.  
And then her door was kicked in. The young woman’s eyes widened as a bundle of black and red barreled through the doorway. “Crap…” She muttered, yanking a drawer open and pulled a baton out, pressing herself against the counter, avoiding the window. The Black Widow unfolded and stood up, glaring at her.   
“Hello.” The more experienced assassin growled, her own batons out, electricity crackling down them. “I hear you’ve been looking for me.” The younger woman glared back.  
“This is my home.” She growled before rushing forward. Natasha reacted instantly, parrying the baton with one of her own and swinging the other at the younger woman’s stomach. “Seriously, I didn’t track you down to your place and try and kill you there.” She continued, dodging by leaping backwards.  
“Well, if you’d gotten a headquarters we’d be doing this there.” Natasha snarked, lashing out at the girl’s head, who ducked down and struck out at her legs. Natasha jumped back and away from her. “What did I even do to you? Did I kill your father or something?” She demanded, voicing her biggest frustration with the whole recent string of events. Most times when somebody gunned for her she at least knew why she was being attacked.  
“You ruined my life!” The younger woman snarled, leaping at her. Natasha frowned and countered the clumsy blows, slamming her electric baton into the girl’s stomach, shocking her.  
“You want to be more specific?” Natasha asked. “I’ve…let’s just say I have a lot of red in my ledger. A lot of it that I’d rather wasn’t.”  
“Ask Ross.” She growled, picking herself up and glaring at the older woman. “If you make it through this.” Natasha’s eyes widened as the girl surged forward, faster than before. The younger assassin slammed into her, shoulder first, shoving Natasha into the wall, hard, cracking the drywall. Natasha winced and jabbed her two batons into the girl’s neck, but the other ignored the pain, jackhammering at Natasha’s stomach. A rib cracked and Natasha forced herself past the pain, lashing out and slamming her forehead into the bridge of the girl’s nose. That finally got the younger woman’s attention, and she staggered away. Natasha crouched down, gasping lightly as she stood there, at least two ribs were cracked. She shoved the pain down and rushed at the mysterious assassin, who glared and dodged to the side, leaping back through the window. Natasha rolled her eyes. Glass hurt, no matter what anybody said, and leaping through windows was not a good plan. Suddenly a brick came through the window. Natasha frowned. That brick hadn’t come close to hitting her. And how’d she managed to pull that loose so quickly…unless…a second later a gas grenade came through, and Natasha cursed as tear gas filled the room, the sound of the younger woman clambering up the fire escape. She turned around and bolted for the doorway, shoving past the crowd of onlooking neighbors as she headed for the roof.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Fifteen Minutes later-Unmarked subway tunnels  
The mysterious young woman leaned back against the wall of a tunnel, gasping. That had not gone the way she’d hoped. Her neck was pretty badly burned, and her nose had been broken. At least she’d gotten a few hits in on Romanov. That was something at least. Not much, but something. She’d gotten away, but she’d lost her laptop and hideout in the process. Fortunately she’d prepared just in case something happened to force her to run, and had pried a brick loose and made a little hole in order to hide that tear gas grenade. She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to pat herself on the back. SHIELD had her laptop, and that meant that they’d be able to get her history and realize her interest in Ross, and that she knew where he was. Which meant she had to go and get him as soon as possible.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Hope y'all liked it! Please review!


End file.
